Mechanix Illustrated - Tom McCahill tests the new Corvair!

[atomicmoloch]

Possibly old hat to some of you, but an extremely laudatory review of the Corvair ran in MI for November 1959. You can read a full scan of the issue here: https://archive.org/details/sim_todays- ... 1_55_11_0/

[66vairguy]

Thanks for posting. An interesting article and of course Tom M. had a way with words. His high praise for the car was a bit surprising, ALTHOUGH he was familiar with rear engine handling AND the car was driven at the GM proving grounds and I'm sure they had the tire pressure correct (low for the front tires). I enjoyed reading about the special "low profile" Corvair tires. Many don't know that. Sadly higher profile replacement tires and incorrect front tire pressures, combined with the typical drivers ignorance on how a car handles caused legitimate problems. Sadly a lot of the handling issues could have been avoided if the front "sway bar" had not been deleted to save money. That will forever be on GM.

Once the Corvair moved from inexpensive economy car (replaced by Chevy II) to "sporty car" there was enough profit margine to upgrade the suspension. How different the Corvair story might have been if the 60 Corvair had the 64 suspension upgrades!!!

Great to see the ads. I was a kid in the 60's and what a time it was. My parents survived the Great Depression and WWII and the 50's and 60's were an amazingly upbeat time for them. However the 1958 economic recession scared folks as it brought back memories of the depression and suddenly many wanted "economy" cars. Now many don't realize that by 1962 the economy rebounded strongly and suddenly economy cars were out of style. By 1963 Falcon, Valiant, and Chevy II sales were in steep decline. The Corvair did fine as a "sporty" car and Ford and Chrysler jammed V8's into their compacts to sell them. Then the Mustang arrived and killed off the original compacts. Most compacts got huge by the late 60's and the Corvair was replaced by the Camaro.

[atomicmoloch]

However the 1958 economic recession scared folks as it brought back memories of the depression and suddenly many wanted "economy" cars. Now many don't realize that by 1962 the economy rebounded strongly and suddenly economy cars were out of style. By 1963 Falcon, Valiant, and Chevy II sales were in steep decline. The Corvair did fine as a "sporty" car and Ford and Chrysler jammed V8's into their compacts to sell them. Then the Mustang arrived and killed off the original compacts. Most compacts got huge by the late 60's and the Corvair was replaced by the Camaro.

funny enough, McCahill predicted exactly that in the same issue, at the end of his article on 1960 model cars on p. 188
"Personally, I go along with the thinking that America is basically a big car country with big car needs. I feel that unless we have a depression of major size, or 60-cents-a-gallon gasoline, five years from now the so-called "big" cars (meaning present Chevy, Ford or Plymouth-size or larger) will still grab off at least 80 per cent of the market"

[66vairguy]

Interesting. What Tom M. could not have foreseen at that time is the "the big car" would become "the big truck".

One thing younger folks don't realize is there were ONLY big cars sold (except Rambler) until the compacts came out in 1960. Ford invented the intermediate Fairlane which was big seller, except what Ford learned is it mostly took customers away from their big Ford and compact Falcon car sales. Of course one thing the intermediates created was the mid to late 60's muscle car. What a dynamic decade.

By the mid 1970's the oil embargoes and insurance costs ended muscle cars. I remember big block Chevelle guys trading in their cars for little to buy a Vega or Pinto (or Japanese compact).